Asian session: The pound traded 0.4 percent from its highest level

01:30 Australia Changing the number of employed April -36.1 11.5 50.1

01:30 Australia Unemployment rate April 5.6% 5.6% 5.5%

01:30 China PPI y/y April -1.9% -2.2% -2.6%

01:30 China CPI y/y April +2.1% +2.3% +2.4%

05:00 Japan Leading Economic Index March 97.6 97.7 97.6

05:00 Japan Coincident Index March 92.4 93.2 93.3

The pound traded 0.4 percent from its highest level in almost three months against the dollar on speculation the Bank of England will refrain from expanding monetary stimulus at a policy meeting today. The BOE's Monetary Policy Committee will keep the target for its program of bond purchases known as quantitative easing at 375 billion pounds ($583 billion), according to all but one of 44 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. In the minutes of the April meeting, the majority on the nine-member panel said monetary policy was already "highly stimulatory."

The euro held the biggest gain in three weeks ahead of a Spanish bond auction today that follows Portugal's first 10-year debt sale since its bailout in 2011. Spain will auction debt maturing in 2016, 2018 and 2026 today. The government's 10-year bond yielded 4.10 percent yesterday and touched a three-year low of 3.94 percent on May 3.

The currencies of Australia and New Zealand surged against most of their major counterparts as data showed job gains in the South Pacific nations exceeded estimates. In New Zealand, employment surged 1.7 percent, or 38,000 jobs, in the first three months of this year, official data showed today, more than the 0.8 percent expected by economists in a Bloomberg survey. The number of people employed in Australia increased 50,100 last month, the statistics bureau said, exceeding the median analyst estimate for a 11,000 gain.

The yen climbed as Asian stocks erased gains.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session, the pair rose $ 1.3165

GBP / USD: during the Asian session, the pair traded in the range of $ 1.5530-45

USD / JPY: during the Asian session, the pair fell to Y98.70